Happy New Year to all of our valued members and followers! We are excited to begin 2021 with exemplary programming and important industry resources. Read on to learn more about what we have planned and how you can take advantage of all that TAGA has to offer…
TAGA Presents
We are working hard on the popular TAGA Presents virtual event with our esteemed presenters! We have made the decision to shift the originally planned January event to March 11 and 23, 2021. The event features four presentations that will present developments in sustainable packaging, color matching across processes, mining big data from MIS solutions, and the state of printed and hybrid electronics.
Thursday, March 11, 2:00–3:30 p.m. EDT
- Re-Thinking Packaging as a Sustainable Profit Center
Kelly Williams, Sustainability Strategist, Futamura Group/NatureFlex Films - How Today’s Reporting Has Become an Intelligent Management Tool to Drive Change
Geert Van Damme, Managing Director, CERM
Tuesday, March 23, 2021, 2:00–3:30 p.m. EDT
- What Can You Really Expect from a Color Match Between Processes?
Jan Michael Lemieux, Manager, Pre-Sales Solutions Support, Canon Solutions America, Inc. and Steve Upton, President, CHROMiX - Printed and Hybrid Electronics: Mounting Applications and Technology Breakthroughs
David Savastano, Editor, Printed Electronics Now and Ink World Magazine, Rodman Publishing
Attendance is free to all printing, graphic communications, and related firms. To sign up, visit taga.org/taga-presents. Registration accounts for both days, which allows attendees to view the presentations of most interest to them.
TAGA would like to thank the following companies for their generous support of the event:
Call for Papers
Due to popular demand, the TAGA Papers Committee has extended the Call for Papers to February 15 to ensure all individuals interested in participating will have sufficient time to submit. Those interested in submitting an abstract should send to: tagapapers@printing.org before the deadline. Abstracts should be 500–1,500 words in length and focus on either scientific research or technical innovation in printing, graphic communications, and related industries. Abstracts are being reviewed as they are received.
For those that are accepted, the full paper and optional video presentation are due by May 31. More information can be found at taga.org/call-for-papers.
The committee has established a goal of publishing 20 papers, so please be sure to get your paper abstract submitted!
TAGA 2021 Membership
We appreciate your patience as we work through the integration process with PRINTING United Alliance. TAGA membership renewal notices for 2021 will be sent out soon. Memberships will also be available for purchase via the TAGA website.
Current members, we have just received delivery of the 2020 Proceedings books and we will begin mailing copies soon.
Featured TAGA Paper—Exposure Risk Assessment: Production to Pressroom
Authored by Natasha Hausler Banke, INX International Ink Company, Exposure Risk Assessment describes the development of methods for determining the exposure level to a raw material in ink. While the methods were used to predict the exposure of operators to PI369, a common photoinitiator used in UV ink, Banke states that the new methods can also be used for other press chemicals facing regulatory scrutiny.
The catalyst for the study was the reclassification of PI369 by the REACH committee of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to a chemical that “may damage the unborn child” and thus be of serious concern to pregnant female employees. The European Union subsequently labeled it as “a substance of very high concern.” Because of the reclassification, member companies of the European Packaging Ink Association (EUPIA), including INX International, remain committed to stop using certain reclassified materials in their ink formulations for the EU marketplace in accordance with the voluntary EUPIA Exclusion Policy.
The paper explains that, in the absence of risk assessment studies that detail actual daily exposure, regulators make determinations almost solely based on the hazard classification of a chemical. Banke and her colleagues used three methods in their effort to get realistic information on operator exposure, all of which relied on air sampling pumps to collect and test for PI369.
The first method assessed air quality at various locations in an ink production facility to examine air quality where the PI is used. The second was a proof of concept for testing the air quality in a pressroom, by simulating misting of UV ink using an inkometer in the laboratory. Finally, a pressroom trial was conducted where the air quality was assessed and analyzed for PI369 while UV inks were in use on a print unit.
The results showed that even under worst case scenario conditions, PI369 exposure was well below the “no observed adverse effect level” identified by ECHA and the “level of reasonable certainty of no harm” determined from a toxicology study commissioned by INX International.
Members can read the 13-page paper in the 2020 TAGA Proceedings (mailing to members soon), or access online (*note: you must log in to download the full paper). In addition, members can listen to Banke present the paper here.